The
Hemispheric Conference on Risk Reduction took place on 4-6 December 2001
in San José, Costa Rica. Some 550 participants from throughout
the Americas met in plenary sessions and work groups to discuss the implementation
of the mandates of risk management from the Quebec Summit of the Americas
(April 2001).

The Organizing Committee of the Conference included representatives from
the United States Department of State, the US Agency for International
Development and its Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA),
the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Pan-American Health
Organization (PAHO). Also represented were the ISDR Secretariat, the Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB), the Coordination Centre for Natural Disaster
Prevention in Central America (CEPREDENAC), the Caribbean Disaster and
Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) and disaster agencies from Argentina,
Canada, and Costa Rica.

The inaugural session
was presided by USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, US Ambassador to Costa
Rica John J. Danilovich, a representative of the Costa Rican Government
PAHO/WHO Deputy Director Mirta Roses Periago, Paul Spencer of the OAS,
and the Director of the ISDR Secretariat, Sálvano Briceño.

The plenary sessions
focused on the links between the Hemispheric Conference and the Quebec
Summit, democracy and disasters, national risk reduction plans, information
management, awareness raising and the role of international stakeholders
in this field.

An innovative feature
of the Conference was the division of the participants into working groups
by sector (food security and agriculture, education, health, critical
facilities) and the introduction of cross-cutting issues such as finance,
civil society, information technology and land-use management for discussion.

This approach helped
to underscore the interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral nature of risk
reduction. The diversity of the contributions and the great interest and
expectations generated by this innovation revealed that a change of perspective
is unquestionably taking place in the region, with greater attention being
paid to the long term. Risk management, and particularly risk reduction,
thus acquire a strategic dimension that transcends individual disciplines
and is no longer the monopoly of disaster management agencies, but rather
an attitude and, indeed, a value or principle that can guide society as
a whole.

The final recommendations
were drafted and finalized employing this dual sectoral and cross-sectoral
approach. A document, which should be available at the OFDA/LAC Web site
by the second half of July, presents these recommendations and provides
an overview of the discussions during the conference, prepared by experts
in various fields in order to ensure that it can serve as an authoritative
source on the current state and emerging trends of risk reduction in the
hemisphere.